waldentwo

To be honest, summer classes were not something I was looking forward to. When I signed up for this one it seemed interesting but I just couldn’t see how we could learn a lot of information in such a short period of time. Behavior has always been an interest of mine, I would watch people’s actions and always ask “Why did they do that?” I feel like in this class answered several of those questions on why people do what they do. Two of the main topics discussed were classical conditioning, where a reaction is conditioned to come after a stimulus and operant conditioning where behaviors are either enforced or stopped due to resulting outcome. It was interesting to see how the study of psychology progressed from a study of only observable behavior to internal behavior as well. For anybody who wants to be a psychologist or have a job in the field, this is definitely a beneficial class because it explains the reasoning behind phobias, addictions and other problems people deal with and how ...

Classical and operant conditioning were the main topics of the course. Both were examined in detail to learn about how behaviors are developed. There are many distinctions between behaviors. For example, behaviors can be overt (observable) or covert (unobservable). Some behaviors are physiological responses, such as fixed-action patterns and simple reflexes, and some are simply learned through reinforcement and punishment. The methods used to study behavior depend largely on what kinds of behaviors are being examined and whether they can be observed or not. Many of the methods used to test and research behavior were covered in this course such as observational studies and experimental studies. Different experimental designs were analyzed in terms of their applications, benefits and weaknesses. This course really expanded my own understanding of behavior. For example, I’ve learned how behavior is learned and why certain behaviors persist more than others, even if maladaptive. For ...

 When I signed up for this course I wasn't sure what to expect. It was between this and another psychology class, and I'm happy I decided not to drop this class. Other classes have mentioned operant and classical conditioning, but they never went really in depth with these two theories. I'm happy that text book dedicated chapters to these two concepts, because I always wanted to take a deeper look into them. I also liked that text book didn't just present the conceptual definitions of these subjects. There were also examples of the different types of research done to help prove these theories. The expanded look into the research done with Pavlov's dogs or the Skinner box come to mind. I thought it was interesting how the text book took the findings from the lab work, and then applied these theories into real life situations. These real life examples definitely gave me better insight into my own behavior, and also into observing the behavior of people around me. A r...

In the beginning of this course I was unsure of what to expect. I wasn’t sure if the material was going to be interesting, boring, complicated, etc. However, once the course started and I began to read the text, I really enjoyed learning about how humans learn and behave. There were basic things I read about that we all experience almost every day unconsciously. Basically what I am trying to say is, the majority of the material mentioned in this book are things we already know or have done; it’s just given a “fancy” name. I enjoyed reading about items that I was already familiar with but were then broken down in simpler terms and researched in depth to get a deeper understanding. The most fascinating concept I learned would have to be Classical Conditioning. Classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs between associations in environmental stimulus and naturally occurring stimulus. This type of conditioning involves introducing a neutral or unconditioned stimul...

I definitely did learn a lot during this class. I like how a lot of subjects in the textbooks went into depth, and didn’t just skim through the topic. I really like learning about BF Skinner. I think he is fascinating with everything that he has done. The textbook also really went into depth about classical conditioning, a lot more than I have learned in other classes. I have never really learned about overshadowing, blocking and latent inhibition.  Overall, I liked learning more in depth about all the topics in the textbook and I liked that it went more in depth with certain psychologists. I think this class was a stress free class. I liked that we had plenty of time to be able to log on and post our blogs. I wasn’t stressed with this class even while I’m taking three other summer courses. I liked reading other student’s posts and videos as well. Some students have really good videos they post!  I think my favorite part of the class was how to treat phobias. Phobias alway...

I find the difference of positive and negative punishment to be interesting.  After working with children, it is clear that children respond differently to different ways of punishment. Positive punishment is when a behavior results in something someone doesn’t like and the person is less likely to behave that way again. One example of positive reinforcement is time out. Sometimes time out works great for kids, sometimes it doesn’t work at all. The child just wants even more attention. Negative punishment is the removal of a certain event following a response which leads to a decrease in the future strength of that response. One example of that is when your parents take your car away for missing your curfew or getting bad grades. I think this punishment is very successful because I’ve known what it is like to get my car taken away! It is the worst and I mad sure to improve my grades so that never happen again.  This article I found interesting was from the super nanny webs...

  Throughout this course we covered many different topics and subjects.  I found basically all of them to be extremely interesting and helpful.  I thought we also covered the most important topics there are in Psychology. As a Psychology major I found myself learning more useful subjects then I have in pervious Psychology classes.  I really liked how this particular course was set up. I enjoyed the style and layout as well. I felt that there were not many assignments but all the assignments that we did had relevance to the class. I thought some of the material was pretty hard but I can say I learned a lot from it.  Choosing my favorite part of the class is hard because I loved all of the topics. One of my favorites was classical condition.  I think it is so interesting how this affects humans and animals as well.  I also thought the topic on Self Control was interesting. We can all relate to this one because it is part of life.  Self Control can...

Tantrums in young children can be a serious behavioral problem for parents if not addressed properly. One of the best methods to stop a child from throwing tantrums is the process of extinction. Many parents find it difficult to ignore a child's pleas, screams, crying and fits during a tantrum but by giving a child attention when he or she throws a tantrum, parents actually reinforce the child's tantrum throwing behavior, making it more likely for the child to continue to throw a tantrum in the future. When a child throws a tantrum, the best action for a parent is negative punishment, meaning that the parent withdraws attention, affection, or whatever else could be viewed as a reward for the child's behavior. This will decrease the likelihood of a child throwing a tantrum in the future. The more times a child learns that he or she will not receive attention, affection, food, or whatever stimulus they may find rewarding, the more likely the tantrum behavior will ...

Have you ever tried a diet then during the process of healthy eating you fall into the temptation of eating junk food? According to the small-but-cumulative effects model , each individual choice on a self-control task has only a small but cumulative effect on our likelihood of obtaining the desired long-term outcome. The small-but-cumulative effects model readily explains how a self-control program can gradually deteriorate. Each temptation ahs only an insignificant effect on our long-term goal, individuals repeatedly are tempted to indulge themselves “just this once,” and easily indulge themselves attaining their long-term goal. An example of this would be starting a diet. For the first few days or weeks you do great and eat healthy. But there is always that one person who brings that donut or brownie to a party, so you become tempted. You think to yourself, “Well… I have been eating healthy, one brownie won’t hurt right?” That one brownie turns into binging on...

I found it interesting that obsessive compulsive disorder stems from avoidant behavior. The compulsions are actions used to avoid the anxiety that their obsessions and worries cause. Because the actions only give a temporary relief, the person suffering from the disorder must perform it over and over again to avoid becoming to anxious. I feel all people have a little bit of obsessive compulsive behavior in them but those with this disorder suffer due to its great impact on their life. I have a friend who most likely suffers from this disorder and is excessively checking she has everything before she leaves. It may not seem to be that big of a deal, rummaging through her purse at least three times to make sure she has everything. However the task is very time consuming and is the reason she is late for work, class and other important events. In the past she mentioned that she has forgotten to bring some pretty important stuff with her such as a cell phone, money, important papers which...

I probably like most people thought that positive reinforcement/punishment actually meant that something positive was happening, and negative reinforcement/punishment mean that something negative was happening. Powell et al. (2009) explains that positive reinforcement simply means that the behavior is in response of something being added or presented. Negative reinforcement means that the behavior is in response of something being removed. The real difference between them is when the word reinforcement or punishment is used after them. Positive and negative reinforcement has the same aim which is to increase behavior. A mother that gives a child dessert after doing homework or takes away dessert because the child doesn't do homework still has the same aim, which is to increase the rate of doing homework. A parent taking away car keys because their teenager stayed out late would be negative punishment since the cars keys are being taken away, and they want to extinguish their child...

I found the learned helplessness phenomenon very interesting. Learned helplessness is basically when an animal or human makes no effort to help themselves due to a lack of control over situations in the past; they  basically give-up. It was first found in an experiment with dogs (Seligman and Maier, 1976) but it applies to humans as well. Learned helplessness is a characteristic of many depressed patients and it is also salient in education. Here's an example of learned helplessness in the classroom.  The book says that people most vulnerable to learned helplessness are people who suffer a series of unfortunate events such as losing a job, becoming ill, or getting divorced. Research also suggests that learned helplessness is less likely to occur for individuals who have successfully overcome misfortunes in their past. If you're curious how "in-control" or "helpless" you think you are, you can take a free, quick, and easy test here:  mindtools: are...

As I was reading over the textbook, I found the topic on Self Control to be fascinating. Self control is the ability to control your emotions and behavior. It allows a person to act in a conduct manner in any given situation.  Self Control is something that everyone should have within and could be helpful in many situations.  I thought it was very interesting how depending on your personality, your self control can vary. Self Control is a form of expression that someone presents in their own way.  It is a form of expression that one acts upon because they are being polite and holding themselves back.  Self Control can change depending on your maturity and with age. Self Control can occur in many different situations.  You might have Self Control from food such as sweets or you might have Self Control by not shouting back at someone.  

After reading about systematic desensitization, I realized that is a form of therapy I practice almost everyday.  Its a process of taking steps to relax someone and help reduce anxiety in fearful and stressful situations. A person masters relaxation techniques and imagines situations going from the least stressful to the most. I practice this technique of systematic desensitization when I engage in relaxing activities such as yoga and ballet. I occasionally think about things that give me anxiety while performing activities that calm me down and a relaxed mentality helps me look at the situation in a different way. A relaxed mindset also enables me realize what exactly about a situation makes me anxious, and being able to identify that helps me to fear it less. For some people relaxing is not easy, partly because their minds are constantly racing and its almost impossible for a person to stop on their own. That is a good reason why medications are sometimes prescribed to get people...

There is something so fascinating about the complexity and variance of fixed action patterns across species. FAP’s exist in just about every species from the single-celled amoebas to giant humpback whales. Many species display unique mating rituals that are considered fixed action patterns. For example, seabirds like the Blue Footed Booby of the Galapagos Islands performs a strange dance in which the males show off the blue pigmentation of their feet to attract a female (the sign stimulus).  The Albatross sea birds also display a unique, species specific mating dance: One of the most complex forms of communication through fixed actions patterns exists among the honeybees. Honeybee colonies have with specialized workers, one of which is the forager. Forager honeybees travel away from the hive, up to half a mile, in search of nectar and pollen. When they find flowers with these food sources, they travel back to the hive and tell the rest of the bees where to find the ...

After reading through the textbook and learning different ways of treatment, I found covert sensitization to be interesting. The book gives the example of someone that is trying to quit smoking. The person would visualize the cigarettes covered in feces or vomit. I think the treatment is extreme, but I think that if someone truly can stick with the notion that the cigarettes are covered in vomit, it could work for them. Personally, I don’t think I could train my mind to actually believe that. But over time, if you visualize that every time you went to smoke, you could actually start to believe it. I looked online to find more examples of when someone would use covert sensitization and found an interesting article about pedophiles who use this method to help them stop having inappropriate thoughts or actions. When the person starts to have these thoughts, they are told to imagine themselves being incarcerated or embarrassing and shamed in public. I think this is a good method for trea...

 Out of all the treatments used to cure phobias I found the flooding technique the most interesting. Powell et al. (2009) describes flooding as a behavioral therapy that involves the patient being face to face with their phobia for a prolonged period of time. The patient literally faces their greatest fear. This is obviously an unorthodox treatment but it seems to be effective in certain cases. It is completely different from the systematic desensitization treatment of phobias which seems to gradually countercondition a person's phobia. The idea is that the patient will be faced with their phobia for such an intense period of time that the stimulus causing the phobia will be extinct. The patient in the video below suffers from a fear of heights, and his phobia is clearly interfering with his life. As the video shows the therapist wastes no time in treating the patient's phobia with this technique and literally makes him climb the steps of a tall cathedral during their first ses...

Aversion Therapy reduces the attractiveness of a desired event by associating it with an aversive stimulus. An ancient version of this treatment was suggested by Pliny the Elder, who treated this overindulgence in wine by secretly slipping the body of large spider into the bottom of the wine drinker’s glass. (Talk about cruel, wine can be expensive!!) The intention of this was that the feelings of revulsion elicited by a mouthful of spider would become associated with the wine, reducing the person’s desire for wine. I think this therapy can be associated with overshadowing. Now whenever that wine drinker sees a glass of wine, they will correlate a large spider just hanging out in the bottom of that glass. If you want to eliminate a habit, aversion therapy will definitely do the trick. However, if anyone ever put a spider in the bottom of my glass of wine, they better run extremely fast and get me a new bottle of wine!

While reading over the textbook, I found the topic of Operant Conditioning to be most interesting. It is interesting how the laboratory environment-called a Skinner box was conducted.  It shows how the rats and pigeons behaved in a controlled environment by the light.  It shows how animals and humans have the relationships between reinforcement  and consequences.  It is true how positive reinforcement increases behavior and punishment decreases it.  It is human nature that we all act like this regardless if we are humans or animals.  It is amazing how smart the animals are to the experiment and how well they cooperate in the experiment.

When reading the assigned chapters, I found the text about using animals brought strong feelings to me. Animal research proves to be beneficial because it helps to study a group of almost genetically identical with a similar upbringing. The use of animals helps to expand knowledge of behavior and the quality of human health. However, sometimes in order gain that knowledge, experimentation considered unethical to humans is used on animals.Being an animal lover and someone against cruelty of animals its hard for me to accept this concept. Although many benefits come from this research such as ways to cure illness, it's still morally wrong. Animals are living creatures and performing unethical experiments and using them as test subjects completely disgusts me. Although animal testing is regulated, sometimes seems as if scientists follow these guidelines very loosely. The video below shows both sides of the controversy, but seeing what animals rights activists recorded on hidden camera...

I thought B.F. Skinner’s concept of control and counter control in social behavior was really interesting.  Control is when we are victims of our thoughts and feelings.  Control is also when people can influence our emotions, and when they do, they also can control someone’s behavior.  The opposite of control is counter control and that is when we can change our environment and that will effect our behavior. Counter control is a way that people can regain their freedom. It is also considered an escape behavior. I know I mostly have characteristics of control in my life. Usually if someone is upset or mad, it does effect my own emotions. I really can’t get past someone else’s feelings who is close to me, because it does effect myself and how I feel.  I think some people can agree. When you are fighting with your best friend or parent, you probably will feel upset until things are settled.  I also do know some people who follow counter control. A lot of people d...

I found it interesting how this text book sheds a new light on B.F. Skinner. Up to this point I was always under the assumption that he was someone who had some interesting theories, but was eccentric and unethical. A key reason for this was the infamous Skinner Box. Powell, Symbaluk, & Honey (2009) explained that the real reason for the skinner box was to provide filtered air and regulated temperature to the crib. It was a great alternative to the unstable and jail cell like standard cribs (Powell 2009). This was obviously somehow lost in translation and the press assumed he was having his daughter conditioned through the Skinner Box. People assumed Skinner was coldly experimenting on his own daughter, and there were rumors she had a horrible childhood as the result of it. Other psychology classes even led me to believe that he performed unethical experiments on his own daughter. The video below shows Skinner in completely different light from what I pictured him to be. He points ...

EVOLUTION Throughout my childhood I was taught about the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin. When I saw the name Charles Darwin in the text I thought oh no here is this guy again. I can't read about him again and read the same old thing. To my surprise this book taught me something new about Darwin' theory and got me interested. In the video above it gives a simple summary on what his theory was. This idea is spoken about with the thought of natural selection which is the theory that the things that can adapt to the environment the best are most likely to survive. This is basically saying that people need certain resources to survive and one might have a better trait that allows them to survive. An example of this is giraffe’s long neck. Originally some might have had shorter necks, but these animals couldn't reach the leaves so the ones with the longer necks survived more causing there to be giraffes with longer necks. I thought this all made sense ever s...

One of the most common facets of behavioral learning theory is classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs between associations in environmental stimulus and naturally occurring stimulus. This type of conditioning involves introducing a neutral or unconditioned stimulus before a naturally occurring response. A famous study, that was conducted to prove this theory, was conducted by Ivan Pavlov and his associations with dogs. This study involved dogs that were introduced to a variety of foods. The experiment was to measure the saliva production each time the dogs were presented with food. It occurred automatically and naturally every time the dogs were presented or thought that they were going to be presented with food. Classical Conditioning is one of my favorite theories in psychology. Unlike other interesting topics, classical conditioning is the most appealing and fun experiment to view. I have attached a funny clip from The Office. It is a f...

While reading over the chapters that we we assigned too, I found reading about behavior was the most interesting topic that I came across. Reading about   Classical Conditioning really fascinated me. I love how people and animals learn though this learning mechanism.  It is especially interesting how dogs learn.  I love how the dog hears a specific sound and associates it with something such as food. It is interesting how they learn from smell and are able to find their way to food.  Smell seems to be a huge part of our behavior.  Even humans associate smell an experience.  Smell can remind you of someone, some thing, or some place.  It is interesting how behavior is learned. I love the things that we pick up and learn things from other people as we observe them.  Overall all of the chapters that we read were very interesting and had a lot of new information.  I learned a ...

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